Balasore train accident: Heartbreaking Bengali love poems found amidst wreckage

After a horrific train accident rocked the country, more heartbreaking details emerged on Sunday following investigations on the wreckage site in Balasore, Odisha. Amidst the wreckage, officials discovered damaged sheets of paper inscribed with handwritten Bengali love poems. 

"Alpo alpo megh theke halka bristi hoy, chotto chotto golpo theke bhalobasa sristi hoy," one poem read, Odishatv.in reported. The poem translates to “scattered clouds lead to light rains, (while) love blossoms from the little tales we hear”.

"Bhalobeshei toke chai sarakhhon, achis tui moner sathe," another poem read, translating to “With love, I need you at all times, you are there in my mind at all time”.

In addition to the poems, the officials also found a diary with sketches of elephants, fish, and the sun drawn in it. The identity of the owner and the poets remains unknown. Nobody has come forward to claim the poems or identify the poet, whose fate is still unknown, the police informed.

Photos of these poems quickly spread like wildfire on social media, further humanising the victims and leaving people heartbroken at the tragedy. 

The crash involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train occurred at around 7 pm on June 2 near the Bahanga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore. The Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express carried over 2,500 passengers at the time of the incident. At least 275 people lost their lives and over 1,100 have been injured in the accident.  

Initial investigations into the crash revealed that a signal was given to Coromandel Express to enter the main line, but it was taken off, and the train entered the loop line and crashed into a goods train parked there.

Following the initial investigations, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has suggested a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the tragic triple train accident.